The state of things

We’ve been working like crazy to get the house as complete as possible before our crap is delivered tomorrow.  We have painted almost every room, closet and ceiling on the main level, some of the windows, ripped out every shred of carpet, every piece of paneling, every window treatment, and I’m sure a bunch of other things I can’t remember right now.  We also had our favorite floor guy (Anchondo’s Flooring) come from Racine to refinish all of the hardwoods on the main floor.  It was a huge job including the stairs, and we are so grateful they are done and look beautiful!  First things first, the paint.  We chose to use mostly the same paint colors as the Minnesota house because they worked well with our furnishings and the ranch style of the house.  Check out the lovely peach instantly modernized by Sherwin Williams Popular Gray:

The biggest transformation is the hallway.  It looks twice as big now.  Before:

We also had an electrician replace all the funky black and painted-over outlets and switches in the house to shiny white.  After spending hours of my life changing almond outlets at the last house, I decided my time was better spent elsewhere.  This is what almost all the outlets were like:

Painted over the entire surface with so many different colors, we had to break the actual outlet to remove them since they were fused with the covers.  Seriously.  I also had to paint miles of silly looking quarter round that they put around all the vinyl windows and painted the wall color.  It seemed easier than taking it all off and dealing with whatever was underneath. 

Ashford’s room is painted the same color as his old room – SW Anew Gray.  We want it to look exactly the same in here, because he’s had so much change I just want him to be as comfortable as possible.  This color once again freaked me out by looking super TAN while wet, then drying to the warm gray I expected. 

Our room is sporting my ultimate favorite color, Behr Aqua Smoke from our Russet Street bedroom.  I love this color!  I could have it in my room forever.  I know it seems boring to use the same color, but Shaun and I both love it, so the decision was simple. 

The other two rooms are not really thought out yet.  The room with the wood wall got a coat of Anew Gray for now, and the guest room is not even painted yet while we figure out the treatment for the ruined wall.   Here is how things are looking now that the floors are done and the hideous ceiling fans are gone:

 I have no idea why this photo is so blurry, but I promise it looks great!

I love the way the wood wall looks with the floors.  There will be white baseboard in here, and throughout the house. 

I’m thinking board and batten on the ruined wall to add some interest and avoid having to skim coat the entire thing or re-drywall. 

I’m going to replace the railing, but even with the orange oak it still looks much better in here. 

We even painted the entire garage white including the concrete walls, which was not easy….but we are glad we did it.   We used masonry waterproofing paint just in case, and it just looks so clean in here now.  We left the floor for now, since there would be no time for floor paint to cure prior to our household delivery.  Maybe one day!

Wish us luck with the delivery!  I can’t wait to try to find places for everything….